Foreign policy in the 1960s was marked by a doctrine known as the “Domino Theory.” In a nutshell, the idea was that allowing one country to fall to communism, particularly in East Asia, would embolden communists and lead other countries to fall as well. Among others, President Lyndon Johnson embraced this idea and used it […]
For nearly nine months, the White House has had the luxury of ignoring the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. Truth be told, the president has intentionally ignored events that pushed both sides further from peace since the day he took office. But it was nearly nine months ago when Bush announced that he would “support” Palestinian efforts just […]
There’s a real gem of a quote hidden deep in the New York Times’ coverage of the administration’s unsuccessful efforts at the U.N. “There’s a recognition this has not been our finest diplomatic hour,” one senior White House official told the newspaper. You can say that again. These guys are looking more and more like […]
War is coming, push has officially come to shove, and the commentariat is falling into definite categories. It’s fascinating to watch from a distance. As I’ve mentioned before, opponents and supporters of a U.S. invasion of Iraq do not fall along simple, predictable lines. While policy debates in DC usually break down into Dems vs. […]
When Trent Lott lamented about Strom Thurmond losing the 1948 presidential race, running on a segregationist platform, the Republican Party saw its outreach efforts to African American voters fall apart almost overnight. The GOP’s attempts didn’t appear to be working anyway, but having your Senate Majority Leader announce that the U.S. would have been better […]
There was an article in the Wash Post last week about the rising prominence of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and the respect she has earned from her colleagues. While I was glad to see the report — I’ve always greatly admired Sen. Clinton — my interests in the article were a little more parochial than […]
This morning I expressed some concern about why Congressmen Ney and Jones had time to be so concerned about french fries in the House cafeteria, and assumed they had better things to do. After checking some congressional records, I’m left to conclude they didn’t. I haven’t been checking in with C-SPAN lately, but part of […]
I really was going to let this go, but the more I think about it, the more irritating it is. (That, plus today’s papers are filled with procedural wrangling in the U.N. regarding war in Iraq, and I don’t have much to add to the subject) Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) have […]
By any reasonable measure, a majority of states are facing their most serious fiscal problems in recent memory. Ray Scheppach, the executive director of the National Governors Association, recently told David Broder the situation represents “the worst crisis in state finances since World War II.” From coast to coast, the consequences of these budget crunches […]
Imagine I were to tell you about a criminal justice system in a Third World country in which a murder defendant, who is black, was accused of a killing a white teenager. Imagine that the defendant was convicted by an all-white jury after a one-day trial in which prosecutors had no fingerprints, no witnesses, no […]